Re: Google Summer of Code 2008
On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 09:17:56AM +0100, Lucas Nussbaum wrote:
> > I really can't figure out what you're saying, here. AFAICS, we had
> > significantly *better* results when choosing GSoC projects submitted by
> > existing Debian contributors. Where are these failures you're talking
> > about?
> My definition of failure is: "(what was achieved) < (what I expected to
> be achieved, given the skills of the people assigned and the time they
> were supposed to spend on the project)".
> That's of course subjective,
Yes, subjective to the point of absurdity. If failure is defined in terms
of *your* expectations, I don't see how we can even have a meaningful
dialogue about it.
> but I think that the evaluation done by the mentors is subjective too. How
> were the GSOC projects evaluated?
I don't know how they were evaluated, but why are you only now asking this
question, and of debian-devel instead of the program mentors? This seems
like a question that ought to be asked of the relevant parties *before*
declaring that Debian's participation in GSoC has been a "failure".
An objective metric for success and failure is "accomplished the goals that
were stated at the beginning of the project". Another is "produces working
code". I think these are the most important objective metrics for success,
and it's my understanding that by these standards, Debian's participation in
the 2007 GSoC was a success.
There may be other objective metrics to consider; yet I don't see any way
that the *students* should be judged to have failed if they met the goals
that were agreed to up front, whether or not they met *your* expectations of
output. The latter might indicate that the mentors failed to set
appropriate goals, but that's an entirely separate question.
> Were they given goals to fullfill? We probably need to improve the
> descriptions of the projects a bit, so people know a bit more what they
> are expected to do.
Again, questions that should be directed to the GSoC admins and/or mentors.
But this is also addressed in the GSoC FAQ:
10. Will a student receive the stipend if the organization does not use
her/his code?
As long as the goals listed in a student's accepted application are met
according to the judgment of her/his mentoring organization, the student
will receive the stipend whether or not the project uses the code
produced.
http://code.google.com/soc/2008/faqs.html#0.1_stipend_code
But the evaluations of the students' projects are not public in nature.
It's up to Debian's GSoC admins to decide how much detail to share with you;
I don't think it would be appropriate to make students have to answer to all
1000+ DDs for their GSoC work, whether or not the students are themselves
DDs.
--
Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer http://www.debian.org/
slangasek@ubuntu.com vorlon@debian.org
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